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A cynical marketing ploy

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EDIT (May 2015): The first shirt design is available for purchase!All profits go to our cynical prize fund.

The above tweet gave us at MTGPrice.com an excellent idea: we should cynically do something to promote women in MTG  in order to ride this bandwagon and make Google-like profits from it.

This is a 100% capitalistic venture. In no way are we doing this because the above tweet encapsulates an attitude that is complete fucking bullshit. Let there be no mistake – the proposal below solely exists to make us money and for no other reason. (It’s certainly does not, for example, have anything to do with the fact that I’d like to take my daughter to a magic tournament one day and not have her see this kind of completely fucking appalling attitude.)

Anyway, we’d like to do the following:

Are you female? Do you want to play in a Grand Prix  but need some urging (financial or otherwise)? Do you have a torso? Awesome!

We will come up with some kind of tasteful t-shirt featuring our logo in all its capitalistic glory.  We will pay you to wear this t-shirt on your aforementioned torso and then play in GP Vegas.

The rules:

  • We will pay $50 to at least ten woman who wear our shirt at GP Vegas. More if we can afford it. (EDIT: We have increased the number of corporate shills to twenty!)
  • The participant who ranks highest in the main event will receive an extra $300 and the person who ranks second-highest will receive an extra $200.
  • You must wear our shirt for the entire day and play in at least five rounds of swiss to receive your money.
  • You must high-five any other shirt wearer you come across for the remainder of the day.
  • Email webmaster@mtgprice.com to sign up. 

NOTES:

1. If you sign up, please actually attend the event. My plan is to send the shirts to the event itself for pickup.

2. Please be female, however you personally choose to define that. We don’t care if you are trans, gay or any other label you choose to affix to yourself. Remember, this is a cynical marketing ploy for us to make as much money from you as possible: being bigoted would get in the way of cash generation.

3. I have no idea if this is legal. If it isn’t, we’ll donate the money to some related charity instead. For the tax write-offs, obviously.

28 thoughts on “A cynical marketing ploy”

    1. For the low-low price of $100 I’ll send you a shirt with the words “Give me a high five and I’ll give you my wallet” printed on it.

      Alternatively, perhaps we can get something created for non-participants to wear. Any ideas?

  3. Is there a way for me to kick in $50 to sponsor a player? Email me: justinjames [at] titaniumcrowbar.com

    Thanks!

    – Justin

    1. Absolutely! Let me know if you’d like a shout-out on twitter, an ad for something on the blog or some other way we can say thank you.

      I’ll send you an email tonight!

  4. I showed this to my wife, who’s the only Canadian woman to have ever earned a pro point. She’d be all over this, except that we have a newborn. Major props to you folks.

    2. A couple other Canadian women have pro points now! See @bloodymessjess and @courtneymarijo on Twitter (i doubt either would turn down a free shirt)

  6. Man this sounds great! I’ve actually wanted to get my gf back into magic and this sort of stunt is perfect! Any chance you can send a shirt out to GP Cleveland next month?

  9. If i come dressed like Mrs. Doubtfire does That meet the requirments for this? I didnt know if crossdressing was close enoigh mask and all.

  11. We’re not going to GP Vegas, but my girlfriend plays Magic and she would most definitely sport a Magic shirt at our LGS. She used to be a model for kayaks too, if that makes a difference.

  12. I’ve been on the fence about GP Vegas but this might tip me over…brb submitting vacation request!

  13. Didn’t take long for Twitter to start missing the point. So typical, but that train is always right on schedule.

  14. So i sent yall an email. I am so happy to see someone starting a dialogue on this. It is a cause close to my heart and I have been talking about starting a team that is inclusive of women and lgbtq individuals. I do not have the resources to make that a reality yet but I believe this activity has room to grow and the first place is visibility. I would be honored to be a part of this. My first gp was the last modern masters gp in vegas. So this one already has a special place in my heart.

  15. My gf and I are trying to get everything together to attend GP Vegas, not 100% sure yet though… I showed her this article though and she loves the idea!

  18. Wish I could take you up on the offer, but GP Vegas is too far away. I was certainly oggled at the Star City Games Winter Regionals… there were very few women there.

  20. I sent my e-mail! Not sure if I can make it though because of travel, but perhaps the possible sponsorship could chance things? I’ll have to look into it.

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